Healthcare Data:

• The National Vital Statistic System (NVSS) 2018 reports maternal mortality differences based on race. It has been reported that Black women in America have the highest maternal mortality ratio, followed by White women, and Hispanic women. However, data for API women were not reported. This highlights the limited health disparity research among API population. [3]

• Unfortunately, when there are research on the API population, they are often aggregated into a single homogenous group, which consequently obscures distinctive disparities across API subgroups (e.g., Filipino, Korean, Chinese, Cambodian).

Medical Mistrust:

• Compared to White patients, API patients are more likely to report that their healthcare providers did not understand their backgrounds, and did not involve them in healthcare decisions as much as they wanted, which lead to medical mistrust.

• Medical mistrust impacts the desire for API women to seek medical care (e.g., fertility care). [4]

• A common API microaggression, the belief that all API patients are well-educated and can speak and understand English fluently can jeopardize the patient-provider relationship. [5]

• In a Pronatalist Society (promotes reproduction of human life) like U.S., API women feel pressured to bear children and are frequently blamed by their community for their inability to conceive.

• APIs facing infertility have been shown to experience extreme psychological distress including loss, anxiety, depression, feelings of hopelessness and loss of control, anger, resentment and low life satisfaction. [6]

As a result of social stigma and strong sense of shame, Asian women will tend to conceal their circumstances and are less likely to seek fertility treatment or seek treatment at a later age. [1]